[ Ed: We are excited to feature B2B specialist Christina “CK” Kerley as a contributing blogger. A strong voice in modern B2B marketing, learn more about CK here ]

Diving into social media and mobile media can be quite daunting for B2Bs. After all, it’s an entirely new way of marketing, communicating, engaging and selling. The tools may be easy, but the environment is complex. One-way messaging habits are now ineffective as new media calls for two-way and multi-way communication with our audience, consequently a lot of content needs to be created to reach this target audience.

However, don’t let this discourage you. Fact is, your vast archives of data can be “recycled” in new ways across text, audio and video that foster new conversations and spread your ideas to new audiences on a broader scale. But how, you ask?

Use this 3-point framework to help you think differently about the content you’ve already created, as well as your efforts moving  forward:

#1 REPURPOSE existing content.

Start with information-gathering and assessment through:

• Audit - Conduct an audit of all the thought leadership your company has created—especially content created in the last 2-3 years. Whether the content was delivered through an article, white paper, Webinar, PowerPoint presentation, speech, case study or any other format, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you aggregate ALL applicable content for your audit.
• Organize - Pinpoint and categorize the various themes, topics, challenges, benefits, key messages, methodologies and “hot buttons” that you have gathered. And make sure you’re focusing only on the content that is still timely, as some content is “evergreen” but other content may be obsolete.

#2: REPACKAGE your content in entirely NEW ways through text, audio and video.

From your findings in step #1, start mapping out how the content can be ‘repackaged’ into new formats across these new tools, channels and platforms. The possibilities are near limitless. For example:

• Position papers can become a series of blog posts to be read, or a bunch of informative audio podcasts your audience can listen to during  daily commutes.
• White papers can translate into a series of forum topics and discussions.
• Video tapes of speeches by your company’s subject experts can become a series of online videos.
• Categories, themes and challenges addressed in your content can give rise to a LinkedIn Group… or a community that you build.
• PowerPoint presentations  can become an online slideshow perfect to view on screens both large (laptop) and small (smartphone). You can even overlay the audio onto the slides so that the presentation is that much more dynamic and personal.
• Industry trends and news can become a stream of mobile SMS alerts that your audience can subscribe to and remain informed of industry developments instantly.
• Case studies can become a “best practice series” delivered through a set of Webinars where users can post questions via Twitter and Facebook with your team answering them in real time.
• Findings from a recent study you commissioned can become a set of tweets, status updates and wall postings… that redirect to a blog post, podcast, or video.  

#3: REFINE content for SEO and provide the best experience possible for audiences across VARIOUS environments.

• Optimize content for search engines. The content that you’ll repurpose and repackage should be refined to include the universe of keywords that will help your site rank highly in search engine results. SEO could be a post all its own, but just be mindful that you’re not only marketing your content to your audience but also optimizing for the search engines that pull your audience to you.
• Optimize content for multiple environments. The best practices of social-media content are vastly different from the best practices of mobile-media content—because the devices from which your audience views your content are completely different. Just pull up the same Web content on a laptop and a smartphone and you’ll understand exactly what I mean. Optimizing for screens both large and small requires more effort, but it’s worth going the extra mile. For more detail, I recommend that you review this post on refining content for mobile environments.

All that said, the benefit of recycling your thought leadership is far from just a way to more easily dive into social media and mobile media. At its core, this practice is an argument rooted in ROI. Why? Because you are MAXIMIZING the investments you’ve ALREADY made—as creating all that smart content took your team a lot of time. Plus, it didn’t come cheap to your budget. So you want your content to have as many legs across as many media as possible.

And now you can repurpose, repackage and refine your thought-leadership content as far as these tools and your imagination will take you.

To learn more about the author of this post, Christina “CK” Kerley, click here.

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[Ed: We are excited to feature Jay Baer as this weeks' guest blogger. He is a popular social media strategy consultant and reknowned blogger. To learn more about Jay, click here. ]

Sure, social media takes a lot of time, but probably not as much time as you think. Too many companies and organizations are reinventing the content wheel for every social outpost they maintain. A better approach is to create a content ecosystem that allows you to repurpose and cascade your best information.

 Instead of a series of self-contained initiatives, build yourself a content ladder.

 Here are 5 steps to get there:

 1. Understand Taxonomy

Taxonomy is incredibly important in social media because it’s the most direct link between the worlds of social and search marketing. Remember, your most important customers are search engines, and your content ladder needs to maximize your chances for search success

When creating and promoting social content, include specific, relevant keywords and search phrases wherever possible. (This is especially important now that Google and Bing are incorporating social content into real-time search results).

 Find keywords and search phrases to include in these three places:

 Web site Analytics

Look at your keywords report to find phrases that are driving traffic to your site. I recommend using a mixture of your Top 25 phrases and some that are highly relevant to your business, but perhaps aren’t sending as much traffic as you’d like at present.

 Social Mention (or a paid social media listening package like Radian6, if you have one)

Go to www.socialmention.com and search for your company or product name (in quotes), and set the pull-down to “all.” You’ll then see a search results page that shows a comprehensive list of places you’ve been mentioned on the social Web.

 Below, you’ll see a keywords chart that lists common terms associated with your name in social media. Consider adding some of these to your list if they differ from your analytics results.

Twitter Lists

How your company or product are referred to in consumer-created Twitter lists can yield important taxonomy insights.

Go to your Twitter account, and click on “listed” next to your followers count, and see how the lists that include your Twitter account are named. Consider including some of these phrases to your master keyword list.

Incorporate your phrases into your social content wherever possible, but only when relevant. Nobody appreciates keyword spam on the social Web.

 2. Seek Content Inspiration

Creating successful social media content isn’t just status updates. Take your top  keywords (including your company name, product name, etc.) and search for them on Google, Bing, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and SocialMention.

What shows up in these search results? How much photo and video content appears? Content from your competitors? From fans? You’ll be amazed at how many content-creation ideas this simple exercise can generate.

3. Understand Your Frequency Ecosystem

The key to a content ladder is organizing your rungs. Your scenario may of course vary, but for illustration purposes let’s assume you have a Twitter account, Facebook fan page, blog, and email newsletter.

To create an efficient ladder, you must understand the comparative publishing schedules that you typically employ for each of these outposts. Ordered from most frequent publication to least, let’s assume that your program looks like this:

• Twitter (5x/day)
• Facebook (2x/day)
• Blog (3x/week)
• Email (1x/week)

Create your own integrated frequency schedule to better understand how your outposts interrelate.

4. Test & Track

Create a piece of content (remember to include your key phrases), and post it to the first rung in the ladder (Twitter, in this case) Use a tracking system (I prefer bit.ly) to determine how popular that specific piece of content was with your audience.

Remember, however, that many factors influence popularity at the individual content piece level. Don’t make assumptions – test them. Vary time of day, day of week, phrasing, link placement, and other options, and thoroughly document your results.

Social media scientist Dan Zarrella has some excellent research on social content best practices.

5. Tweak and Repurpose

The content pieces that are most successful on the first rung of your ladder should be appropriately tweaked and redeployed on the second rung of your ladder (Facebook).

Test and track content success on Facebook using bit.ly (or number of likes and comments), and add the most effective content pieces to the next rung on the ladder. Note that as you move down the ladder, your repurposing will be more complex – a blog post requires substantially more content than a Facebook update in most cases.

If a piece of content is successful on your blog (measured by visits as determined by Web site Analytics), add it to the next rung – your email newsletter.

By understanding how your various social outposts can work together at the content level, you can develop meaningful efficiencies. Also, because a sprinkling of the content included in the lower rungs of your ladder has already proven successful on higher rungs, the relevancy and popularity of your content should increase for most fans/readers/subscribers.

Of course, this content ladder approach assumes that you do not have the exact same audience for each of your social outlets, and I believe that to be an entirely realistic assumption. You may have some overlap (especially with Facebook and Twitter), but consumption of status updates and consumption of blog posts and email newsletters are meaningfully different activities, and attract different groups of fans.

To learn more about the author of this post, Jay Baer, click here.

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Online marketers, especially agency marketers, have their work cut out for them. Their agencies demand they continuously produce through innovation and idea generation, and their clients view them as the go-to expert for all online marketing questions.

 Couple these expectations with an oversized workload, and one quickly wonders where agency marketers find free time to proactively further their online marketing education.

To save our agency marketers time and energy, we’ve compiled a list of our top recommended organizations and B2B marketing events that’ll help any marketer stay competitively ‘in the know’ (and perhaps meet a few potential clients while you’re at it.)

Without further adieu, since time is surely of the essence, they are – in no particular order:

1. Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) – There’s a good chance your agency is already a member of this organization, but you may not be aware of all it has to offer, including access to the research of more than 400 companies that belong to the IAB.

You’ll also find the most up-to-date industry standards for online ad specs as well as general online advertising guidelines.  Their Glossary of Interactive Advertising Terms is an excellent resource for marketers of all levels.

The IAB also features a host of webinars, events and even seminars like the IAB Interactive Boot Camp for Senior Marketers & Agencies, which can be customized for your agency. Also check out the IAB’s Certification in Interactive Advertising Program. 

2. Anything Ending in ‘-IMA’–Whether you’re in Boston or Austin, if you live in a larger city (and chances are if you work for an advertising agency that you do,) your area will have a local interactive marketing association.

These interactive associations are great places to network with and learn from other agency marketers. Overall organization structures and offerings will vary, but most associations will have some type of monthly or quarterly meeting in the form of a luncheon, roundtable or networking event where you can socialize and educate simultaneously.

The B2B vs. B2C mix of marketers in local chapters will vary upon location. Don’t hesitate to interview the local chapter heads before joining to ensure the association’s overall audience and educational focus complement your online marketing education goals.

Check out Lee Odden’s List of Regional Search and Interactive Marketing Associations for local associations in your area, and search LinkedIn or Meetup.com  to find additional organizations.

3.  Business Marketing Association (BMA) – This organization focuses on all areas of marketing – both online and offline, so if you’re looking for more integrated marketing education, you’ll find it here.

Like the local interactive marketing associations, BMA has regional chapters that hold monthly or quarterly meetings, socials and more. To find a local chapter in your area, click here.

BMA offers access to B2B articles, whitepapers, industry research and podcasts. They also offer three customized certification programs for business marketers through the Business Marketing Institute. 

4. BtoB Online – An equal blend of an online marketing with an emphasis in B2B makes this organization (and event host) a must-know resource for B2B online marketers.

Their BtoB NetMarketing Breakfasts are held in major cities like New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston and San Francisco, and typically feature a star-studded panel of B2B marketers sharing marketing challenges, successes and overall insight. These breakfasts are free to marketers and will have you back to the office well before noon.

If leaving the office isn’t an option, BtoB’s webcasts are another great way to stay up-to-date on the latest B2B online marketing trends, all from the comfort of your desk. Also accessible from your desk are articles, research reports and newsletter options for a daily dose of information right to your inbox.

5. MarketingSherpa’s B2B Marketing Summit – Their annual B2B summit offers both a West Coast and an East Coast summit; both are held this year in October.

This two-day event features case studies, training sessions and roundtables focused on the latest trends in B2B marketing (with lots of sessions devoted to online marketing).

If you’re fortunate enough to attend one of the summits, you can expect to find an audience of senior-level marketers and decision makers.  You’ll also find a healthy mix of agency and client-direct marketers.

On the whole, MarketingSherpa is a great resource for any marketer looking to further their industry education or provide a client with the latest online marketing stats. Check out The MarketingSherpa Library  - it’s broken down by topic and tactics. You may have to pay for some of the resources, so check to see if you’re already a member.

6. MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum – If you’re looking to immerse yourself in B2B marketing, then this two-day event is for you. Like the MarketingSherpa events, you’ll find a senior-level audience with a mix of agency and client-direct marketers.

MarketingProfs is one of the industry leader s for providing B2B marketing education – the company was actually started by marketing academic Allen Weiss as an online location for exchanging marketing ideas and information.  Today, it has more than 350,000 subscribers and keeps its educative spirit by offering a marketing training certification program through MarketingProfs University.

Agencies working specifically with B2B technology companies will want to check into their SocialTech event, a first-year event with front-row access to learning how to leverage social media for increased online marketing performance.

7. B2B Search Strategy Summit –For those who are tired of leaving B2B online marketing events  wishing there were more search marketing-specific sessions, this is THE B2B search marketing event of 2010.

In its first year, this event is already quickly capturing the attention of the biggest names in B2B search marketing who are looking to share and learn advanced search marketing best practices for B2B, including how to shorten the B2B sales cycle, integrate search with social, and more.

To register for this June 23 event, click here. Get $300 off registration using promo code BUSINESS.

Whether you’re looking for a quick information fix right from your desk or a more in-depth learning experience or marketing certification, these resources should allow you to find what you need to stay competitive and continue to add value among your B2B online marketing colleagues and clients.

Know of additional organizations or resources that are a must for agency marketers or online marketers in general? Let us know!

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This past week, I was fortunate enough to attend the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum in Boston and grab a seat the keynote session “Six Pixels of Separation: How B2B Connects in a Connected World,” with Mitch Joel, author of Six Pixels of Separation and owner of Twist Image.

Joel was an engaging and dynamic presenter offering ample YouTube clips and tales of conquistadores from long ago, all the while driving home a simple yet profound point: B2B Marketing needs to be more about communicating and less about marketing.

There were three particular takeaways I felt challenged the audience’s current marketing plans and even left many marketers like myself walking out of the room with all preexisting ideas unraveling and trailing behind like a loose ball of yarn…

#1 – Burn the ships (sacrificing the past to be free to focus on what’s in front of us) – Joel shares a story about Hernan Cortes, a Conquistador who, upon landing in Mexico, burned all his ships as a forced yet symbolic effort to show his men there was no turning back, only moving forward.

As marketers, how often do we leave the ship of safety and move forward in exploration? How often do the words, ‘because that’s what we’ve always done,’ or ‘because that’s what we’ve included in the marketing plan’ flow from our mouths? And, how often do we cling to what what’s mapped out on paper because to deviate would seemingly unravel our entire marketing strategy?

Joel challenged us to metaphorically ‘burn the ships.’  What tactics and strategies would we want to save? Which programs and current focuses would we sacrifice? These questions have the ability to shift an entire marketing strategy and free up resources for new endeavors determined not by a spreadsheet or set-in-stone marketing strategy, but by what current and potential clients are telling us is effective. Which brings me to the next takeaway…

#2 –Marketers need to learn to communicate, which means not just speaking, but listening - Webster.com defines Marketing as, “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.” If we take the definition at face value, it’s a very one-directional approach to reaching a target audience.

Joel quickly demonstrates the advent of social media and online communities is the demise of this definition. Marketers no longer drive the brand message; we’re now one of many voices in the overall brand conversation. It’s time to refocus efforts on joining the multi-directional conversation through communication, not marketing.

It’s a common and somewhat expected reaction to say at this point, “While this all sounds well and good for B2C, I’m just not sold on the fact that my customers are that engaged in social media.”

But they are.

In Business.com’s recent study of nearly 2,500 business users, we found that more than 60% of business professionals are turning to social media such as company or product profiles pages on social media sites, user ratings and product reviews, and podcasts or webinars as business information resources.

In other words, 3 in 5 business professionals are currently making decisions about your brand through resources and peer communities where your brand’s voice isn’t the only voice heard and valued. Truth be told, I find the implications to be rather exciting.

The upside and potential for fostering these conversations and engaging with a community where your brand is participating is exponential– that is if you are willing to become part of the community as a participator, not just a spectator.

#3 – Joining the conversation means more than showing up: it means providing value - Pretend, just for a second, that you have three candidates to interview. The first candidate is nice but lacks depth – she keeps reiterating the same points. The second candidate is talkative but off topic and clearly didn’t take the time to research and understand your company before in the interview. The third candidate is engaging, on topic and really understands your company and the position she’d be filling.

Which would you hire?

I’d like to think of a brand’s community participation as a daily and ongoing interview by potential clients.  We’d choose the candidate that offers the most value and understands our company, and so would a client.  

Podcasts, webinars, user review communities, question-and-answer sites like Business.com Answers – clients are more empowered and educated than ever to make B2B buying decisions, and they’re demanding more from their solutions providers.

It’s a challenging call to action that pushes us as marketers to reevaluate our messaging. It requires us to learn how to meet these demands and differentiate ourselves from the competition through unique and engaging content.

If one thing is clear, it’s that it’s time for marketers to start listening and join the conversation. Marketing tactics, as we know them, are unraveling and transforming into conversation where our brand’s voice isn’t the only voice that counts.

Are you ready to join and – more importantly – contribute to the conversation?

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Work for an search marketing agency managing campaigns for B2B clients?

If so, check out the B2B search marketing agency resources section of the Business.com Ad Center. There you’ll find a variety of useful resources to help deliver the best B2B search marketing ROI to your clients including:

• Our monthly B2B search marketing agency newsletter with the latest advanced B2B PPC and SEO tips plus detailed overviews of all new Business.com product releases and site enhancements.
• Special Business.com offers for agencies
• Up-to-date resources to help you pitch Business.com PPC, directory inclusion and/or banner advertising to your clients.
• Business.com advertising FAQs for agencies to help you easily answer client questions about Business.com advertising, and more…

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Oil and water. Mars and Venus. Search and branding.

Not long ago (or still?), brand marketing and search marketing were viewed as two polar opposites in the marketing mix. Many diehard pros specializing in one or the other of these areas still struggle to understand find value in, or even imagine, using search marketing to build or reinforce a brand message.

“The 10 blue links of the search results page are simply not a worthwhile medium for building brands,” say the brand marketers.

“Who cares about building brand awareness and preference when we’re driving conversions!” say the search marketers.

We address this debate for B2B brand marketing and B2B search marketing pros in *NEW* Business.com whitepaper “Building B2B Brands through Search Marketing“.

Here’s a quick summary:

The purpose of this whitepaper is to provide a straightforward overview of how to build your business-to-business (B2B) brand through search marketing, and to provide several best practice tips for finding and leveraging brand-building opportunities in the context of search marketing. Specifically, we cover the three fundamental ways paid search and SEO connect with B2B brand campaigns:

1. Brand initiatives provide key inputs for search marketing campaigns

2. Search marketing delivers an impactful, branded experience

3. Search marketing impressions, CTR and conversion rates are affected by brand campaigns

And, in the process, review the mounting research supporting the impact of a strong B2B brand presence in search results on search marketing ROI.

We don’t get into the “which is better” debate that branding pros and search marketers so often fall into. As you review the research it quickly becomes apparent that this debate is a waste of time - brand marketer and search marketers absolutely need each other to deliver the best possible ROI for their companies.

Visit http://www.business.com/info/b2b-online-marketing/building-b2b-brands today to get your copy of “Building B2B Brands through Search Marketing”.

And once you’ve had a chance to read through it, we’d love to hear your impressions below.

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One area of marketing that remains strong despite the economic downturn is B2B search marketing.   However, as we found in our recent B2B web analytics study involving more than 27,000 B2B web sites, most B2B marketers are still struggling to understand which search marketing campaigns are driving their online conversions.

Watch my recent interview with WebProNews to learn more about understanding web analytics and the best B2B online conversion tracking tools.

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By S. Ryan DeShazer, Global Director of Search Marketing, GyroHSR

I’ve been known to tell clients that, unless you plan on shutting down your corporate Web site, you cannot ignore search. It’s essential to online existence to be findable. In fact, there’s a great quote I use regularly in workshops and new business presentations. It’s simple, to the point, and perfectly brilliant:

“If you cannot be searched, you do not exist.”

For the new entrant to B2B search marketing, the challenge can be daunting. There is so much to consider, and depending on the industry, a bevy of sophisticated competitors are waiting to eat your lunch. But search is essential to any organization’s viability, so you must overcome any fear and get started. Now.

And while effective strategies first incorporate business objectives before turning to tactics, it should be noted that in search there’s really only one tactic: search! Forget this nonsense that either paid or organic search is preferable over the other. Organic results and paid ads share the same page real estate, and to the user there is little on-the-fly distinction between the two. Eye-scanning studies have confirmed this: page placement is more important in determining which listings get attention than whether they are paid or organic.

The Trick: Pick Fights You Can Win

You’ve no doubt seen a graphic similar to the one below before. The theory of the long-tail, in this case visually representing a client’s search keyword-referred traffic for a given time period. The long tail is a very exciting reality and represents a chance for almost every advertiser to “pick a fight they can win.” Essentially, keyword phrases that are queried can be broken into three categories: “head,” “torso,” and “tail” terms.

“Head” terms are general (and, therefore, typically very competitive) terms that relate to the particular industry. “Torso” terms are more specific and receive fewer queries. “Tail” terms are those that are so specific that they receive very few searches, but when added together amount to a large percentage of overall search-referred visitors.

The Key to Winning: Keyword Optimization

Identify which of these hundreds or thousands of keywords (head, torso, and tail) your company can generate positive returns from. Securing the top position for the most popular keyword phrase in the industry isn’t always enough to ensure success. That positioning has to drive an appropriate response among your target audiences.

Start with paid search to cast a wide net and quickly identify which combinations of keyword phrases, ad units and landing pages yield the greatest rates of response. Paid search, unlike organic, can operate fluidly in response to changing market dynamics or advertiser missteps. What if a keyword doesn’t generate the response that was hypothesized? Re-script the ad, change out the landing page, reduce the keyword-level bid or even remove that keyword from the portfolio altogether. With a bit of diligence, it can be determined with statistical certainty which combinations are working. Organic search takes much more elbow grease, and patience, to move the needle.

Once armed with that insight, bring the top-performing combination from paid search into the fold for optimization and claim as much of the “free” search traffic as possible. Recent statistics show that organic listings receive approximately 75 percent of all search click-throughs, so you’re leaving a lot on the table by not taking this extra step. Remember to optimize only for top performing paid search keyword terms and you’ve found some fights you can win.

Over time, less-sophisticated competition will continue to bloody each other’s noses with high-cost paid campaigns and uninformed organic programs. By following this approach, you can side-step those battles and stay focused on what matters most: results.

S. Ryan DeShazer
Global Director of Search Marketing, GyroHSR

Ryan DeShazer is a seasoned digital marketing professional, having served entrepreneurial stints at pay-per-click (PPC) marketing firm Clix Marketing and again as co-owner of interactive boutique NOEINK. His current responsibilities at GyroHSR include developing and advancing the firm’s search engine marketing (SEM) capabilities.

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By S. Ryan DeShazer, Global Director of Search Marketing, GyroHSR

What I’ve always enjoyed about being a B2B search marketer is the inherent complexity involved in persuading the business buyer. Not only do communications need to speak to multiple stakeholders to the purchase decision, but those stakeholders typically happen to be pretty intelligent people, holding prominent roles in their organizations. Gimmicks definitely will not work here.

So the challenge to B2B search marketers is in determining how to secure multiple buy-ins from a finite and intelligent group, overcome a lengthy consideration process, while mitigating fears over high costs and risks associated with the transaction.

Nobody said this was easy work.

The trick to maintain your sanity, while delivering positive returns on ad spend is to focus on things that are under your control. In B2B search marketing, that means you have to do things a bit differently than in B2C. To succeed, you must:

1)    Recognize that business purchase consideration cycles aren’t always linear
2)    Let micro B2B conversions show the way
3)    Capitalize on navigational search
4)    Draw qualitative conclusions from quantitative data

Business Purchase Consideration Cycles Aren’t Always Linear

This is huge. B2B marketers tend to over-think programs and believe that their audiences fit neatly into pre-defined, academic categories of Awareness, Consideration, Negotiation, Purchase. In my experience, no B2B transaction actually maps to this type of consideration cycle. B2B transactions follow myriad paths to completion. The only commonality among B2B transactions is that, at some point, a company became aware of another’s offerings and decided to ultimately purchase.

Not very helpful insight when planning a search program. So, what are B2B search marketers to do?

Let Micro B2B Conversions Show the Way

Not everything has to be about the purchase. Introduce a call-to-action that focuses just on the ultimate transaction and you will lose 95% of your potential audience. What is more impactful, is introducing offers or points of engagement that directly address individual stages of the consideration cycle. Think of these as “micro conversions,” or opt-ins that map to earlier consideration.

For example, online ROI calculators can often be the perfect “offer” made to those considering a purchase, comparing alternatives, and attempting to determine the payback period of a capital investment. Provide website visitors with tools to better inform their purchase decision, and engagement with your website and brand will increase. Investigate what your competitive set is doing and see where you can borrow, and best their offers.

Capitalize on Navigational Search

Navigational search, or search terms that are queried specifically to navigate directly to a particular brand’s website, are huge opportunities as well. In our experience, a disproportionately large number of search-driven conversions will come from brand-term queries.

It makes sense too. Anytime there is complexity in the purchase decision process, you can anticipate that a brand preference emerges as the transaction draws nearer. We see evidence of this as search-referred traffic becomes more brand-focused over the life of the visitor’s website touches. In fact, we’ve invested in analytics technologies that specifically help us to investigate and understand the holistic chain of search events that lead to an ultimate conversion.

Clients don’t always like focusing on branded terms as part of their Search programs, but they’re essential to efficiently capturing and converting web audiences.

Draw Qualitative Conclusions from Quantitative Data

Marketing is not formulaic. It cannot be solved by mathematics, nor can it be run by software alone. Human intelligence and oversight are needed in order for marketing to ensure the brand realizes its full market potential. The raw numbers can, however, help to enhance our own understanding of the marketplace dynamics.

What is the search data telling us that we weren’t aware of previously? Have our target audiences responded differently to our messaging than we originally hypothesized? Has our offer failed to entice action? If so, why has it failed? Can we test alternative messaging to see whether it’s the messaging or the offer itself?

Data can lead us to either conclusions or more questions. Where we’re taken to more questions, we follow-up with more hypotheses.

These four insights can help your search programs become far more comprehensive and relevant to B2B audiences. Your efforts and diligence will help round out a more complete view of your market, that in turn can be used to help establish a long-term competitive advantage. Ultimately, you will be engaging and converting more search-referred prospects than ever before.

S. Ryan DeShazer
Global Director of Search Marketing, GyroHSR

Ryan DeShazer is a seasoned digital marketing professional, having served entrepreneurial stints at pay-per-click (PPC) marketing firm Clix Marketing and again as co-owner of interactive boutique NOEINK. His current responsibilities at GyroHSR include developing and advancing the firm’s search engine marketing (SEM) capabilities.

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At Business.com, we’re dedicated to providing high quality traffic to our advertisers.

As such, we’re very pleased to announce that Business.com is one of the first four pay-per-click industry leaders, including Microsoft (adCenter and Atlas Media Console), to earn click quality accreditation from the Media Rating Council (MRC) certifying full compliance with the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Click Measurement Guidelines. See our press release here.

The MRC accreditation means Business.com advertisers can be assured that the clicks they pay for on Business.com are generated by real people with a real interest in the product or service being advertised.

Business.com has been an active member of the IAB’s Click Measurement Working Group over the last three years, working with other industry leaders to finalize a clear, standardized definition of a “click” and how clicks are measured and counted, including the identification of fraudulent or other invalid clicks. Published in May 2009, the IAB Click Measurement Guidelines also include auditing and certification recommendation for organizations involved in performance-based advertising.  To earn MRC click quality accreditation, a company must undergo a through MRC-drive audit of its operations and review of the findings by the MRC Audit Committee. Once granted, click quality accreditation by the MRC certifies that an organization has provided full and complete information to the MRC regarding all details of its operation, conducts its processing and reporting substantially in accordance with representations to its clients and in compliance with IAB guidelines, and submits to annual audits of its systems by CPA firms engaged by the MRC.

Suffice to say, receiving MRC click quality accreditation is a lot of work but well worth the effort as part of our commitment to click quality and good measurement practices. While Business.com is one of the very first to earn this accreditation, keep your eye out for more announcements as other leading companies offering performance-based advertising commit to full compliance with the IAB’s Click Measurement Guidelines.

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